Italy will send some 2,000 soldiers to Bulgaria and Hungary on NATO's eastern flank and a further 8,000 based in Italy "could be deployed as necessary", premier Mario Draghi said Wednesday.
"Around 2,000 of our soldiers will be sent to Bulgaria and Hungary and 8,000 based in Italy could be deployed as necessary," Draghi told reporters in Madrid where he was attending a two-day NATO summit.
Draghi was responding to a question on whether Italy could contribute to NATO's rapid-reaction force, which the alliance will decide at the summit to whether to boost nearly eightfold to 300,00.
"We've struggled somewhat to reach 10,000 soldiers. We've assumed the command of NATO in Bulgaria and we'll help Romania too," Draghi stated.
"We also have an aerial patrol in the Baltic that's already been in operation for a number of months," he added.
Amid Russia's three-month-old invasion of Ukraine, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday the military alliance wants to boost its quick-reaction forces from the current 40,000 to over 300,000.
Together with other measures such as the deployment of forces to defend specific allies, Stoltenberg said the move is part of the “biggest overhaul of collective defence and deterrence since the Cold War."
